Prepful
The iPad's built-in ways to save a recipe
Nothing to install. They're the same tools as on iPhone, and each one is good at one thing.
Safari Reading List. On the recipe page, tap Share, then Add to Reading List. You can also touch and hold a link and tap Add to Reading List without opening it. Find it again from Safari's bookmarks button, then the Reading List tab. To keep pages readable without a connection, turn on Automatically Save Offline in Safari's settings. It saves the whole page, ads included, and the list gets long fast.
Safari bookmarks. Add a bookmark and pick a folder, so a "Recipes" folder works. If Safari syncs with iCloud, the folder shows up on your iPhone and Mac too. You're still saving the website, so you scroll past everything else on it each time you cook.
The Notes app. Tap Share, then Notes, and the page is added to a new or existing note. Notes can also scan a printed recipe or a recipe card with the iPad's camera: open a note, tap the attachment button, then Scan Documents. Good for keeping a copy, but a scan is a picture, and a link still sends you back to the website to read the recipe.
A screenshot. Press the top button and either volume button together (on an iPad with a Home button, press the top button and the Home button). Quick for a recipe in a TikTok caption or an Instagram post. The catch is finding that screenshot again later among everything else in Photos.
| Method | Saves the ingredients as text | Works for TikTok and Instagram | Turns into a shopping list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading List or bookmarks | Only inside the web page | No, it saves the link | No |
| Notes (link or scan) | No, a link or a picture | Only as a link | No |
| Screenshot | As a picture | Yes, if the recipe is on screen | No |
| Prepful | Yes, as a written ingredient list | Yes, from a link or a screenshot | Yes, one list for the whole week |
Save any recipe from the Share button
Works in Safari, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube on iPad. About ten seconds.
Open the recipe: a page in Safari, or a video or post in TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.
Tap Share. In apps with their own share menu, look for More or the system share option to open the share sheet.
Choose Prepful from the row of apps.
Prepful opens with the link filled in. Tap Import Recipe, and it pulls out the ingredients and steps as a written recipe, with a link back to the original. Check it and save.
Don't see Prepful in the share sheet? Scroll the row of apps to the end, tap More, then Edit, and tap the green + next to Prepful. You do this once on each device, so once on your iPad even if you already did it on your iPhone.
Rather paste a link? Copy it, then open Prepful and go to Recipes > Add > Import a Recipe. Platform details are in the guides for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and any website.
Save on your phone, cook from your iPad
Most recipes turn up while you're scrolling on your phone. Save them there, then sign in to Prepful on your iPad with the same account: your recipes, your week's plan, and your shopping list are stored with your account, so they're the same on both. Nothing to export or sync by hand. The phone side is in how to save recipes on iPhone and how to save recipes on Android.
Cooking from the iPad
Where the bigger screen earns its spot on the counter.
The whole recipe at once. On iPad, a recipe opens with the photo beside it and the ingredients and steps in two columns, so you're not scrolling up and down with floury fingers. It turns with the iPad, portrait or landscape.
Cook mode keeps the screen on. Tap Start Cooking for one step at a time, and the iPad won't dim or lock while it's open.
No ads, no life story. A saved recipe is just the ingredients and steps, with a link back to the original if you want it.
Turn screenshots and recipe cards into recipes
For the screenshots you already have, plus cookbook pages and handwritten cards.
Open Prepful and go to Recipes > Add > Upload a Photo.
Pick the pictures for one recipe, up to six at a time (ingredients on one, steps on the next is fine), or take a photo of the page or card.
Prepful reads the text in the pictures, printed or handwritten, and writes out the ingredients and steps.
Check the amounts, then save. The recipe is now text you can search and plan with.
Doing a whole recipe box? See how to digitize recipe cards, and how to save recipes from a photo for blurry photos and handwriting.
Recipes someone sent you
If a recipe arrives as a block of text in Messages, an email, or an old note, touch and hold to copy it, then go to Recipes > Add > Paste a Recipe. Prepful sorts it into ingredients and steps, so it lands in the same searchable list as everything else. The same works for a recipe ChatGPT wrote for you; see how to save recipes from ChatGPT.
Then actually cook it
Saving is the easy half. Put a few saved recipes on days this week and their ingredients go onto one shopping list, with repeats combined. Plan the week on the iPad's big screen, then take the list to the store on your phone. See how to meal plan with the recipes you've saved, how to make a grocery list from recipes, and how to organize the recipes you already have.
If it doesn't work
Prepful needs iPadOS 16.4 or later. A link won't import if the post is private, has been removed, or never contains the recipe (a finished-dish video with "recipe in comments"). In that case, screenshot the recipe wherever it is and use Upload a Photo, or copy the text and use Paste a Recipe. Prepful is also on iPhone, Android, and the web, and your recipes are the same everywhere you sign in.
Comparing recipe apps? See the best apps to save recipes from social media.